Tigers will have to keep ball moving to steal win at Arkansas

Tuesday

Jabari Brown, Jordan Clarkson and Earnest Ross have proved difficult 1-on-1 matchups for opponents all season while teaming to lead the Missouri basketball team.

But the three guards showed a commitment to keep the ball moving and create scoring chances for each other while also getting more of their teammates involved in the attack in Saturday's victory over South Carolina. The Tigers piled up a season-high 18 assists while putting together their strongest offensive performance of this Southeastern Conference season in an eight-point win.

Keeping it up will be key as Missouri (15-4, 3-3 SEC) heads to Arkansas (13-6, 2-4) in search of a needed road victory as it begins its toughest four-game stretch of the season at 6 tonight at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.

MU fans know well the type of swarming defense Coach Mike Anderson preaches, but the players really don't, considering no one on this year's roster is still around from when Anderson left Missouri to take over the Razorbacks program in 2011. Only Brown, Ross, senior Tony Criswell and sophomore Ryan Rosburg faced them at all last season.

"They play so much different from pretty much everybody else," said Brown, who coughed up the ball five times in 30 minutes during the first of two games against Arkansas a year ago.

This year's Razorbacks haven't pressed as much as some of Anderson's previous teams at Arkansas, Missouri or Alabama-Birmingham, but they are still better than any team in the SEC at forcing mistakes and creating turnovers. Opponents have turned the ball over a league-high 16.2 times per game during the first six conference contests, and it's a challenge to escape the pressure if a player's only using his dribble. It doesn't matter if Arkansas is picking up full-court or trapping on the defensive end.

The pressure will test the Tigers' poise and ability to make sound decisions after struggling with turnovers earlier in the season but averaging 10.7 — second-fewest in the league — during SEC play.

"You've got to be aware of guys coming from behind and you've got to meet passes and you've got to be strong with the ball, because they're going to be aggressive on the ball," said Missouri Coach Frank Haith, whose team struggled when pressed in the second half against the Gamecocks. "You can't allow them to knock balls out of your hands."

During Anderson's best days at Missouri, opponents such as Illinois would sometimes practice with five offensive men playing against seven defenders to try to simulate how quickly the defense can surround a player and begin trying to pry the ball loose.

Haith's team didn't go to that extreme during practice over the past two days, but the workouts were geared toward getting the players ready to withstand pressure.

"We've just been working on a lot of press breaks, trapping — getting to trap spots when they trap the point guards — stuff like that," said Brown said.

He added: "They're good at speeding people up, but they can only play as fast as you let them make you play, so you're just trying to stay under control and making the plays we want to make."

Teams that handle the pressure will have opportunities to play in transition and get scoring chances before Arkansas' defense can really get set. That could play in favor of a Missouri team that often has been at its most comfortable on the run this season.

Frontcourt players Johnathan Williams III and Rosburg could also find space in the paint to score and build on Saturday, when they combined for 16 points while shooting 7 for 9 from the field.

"I think the basket will be open a lot," Brown said. "They'll bring guys up and leave Ryan and J3 in the back open, so they've just got to catch and finish like they did last game."

But it seems the Razorbacks are ready to pounce whenever a team commits an error. The energy they display ripping balls free and turning them into layups has a way of filtering into the crowd at Bud Walton Arena, noted as one of the SEC's biggest home-court advantages.

Arkansas, 45-5 at home under Anderson, is 117-47 (a .713 winning percentage) in home conference games since Bud Walton Arena opened at the beginning of the 1993-94 season. The program is 160-168 overall in league play (.489) during the same period.

If the Tigers could figure out a way to beat the Razorbacks on the road, it would take some of the sting off their home loss to Georgia to open SEC play and would give them back-to-back league wins for the first time. It would also bolster the players' confidence heading into Saturday's home game against Kentucky with road games at Florida and Mississippi next.

"When you get in conference games, every game is important," Haith said. "Road games are more important than home games, to be honest with you. … You're building your résumé every time you lace them up and you can get a win."

This article was published in the Tuesday, January 28, 2014 edition of the Columbia Daily Tribune with the headline "Steady against the swarm; Tigers will have to keep ball moving to steal win at Arkansas."

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